


I Know We'll Meet Again, Some Sunny Day

by allineedisaquill



Series: Some Sunny Day [1]
Category: BBC Ghosts, Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, BBC Ghosts - Freeform, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Flashbacks, Ghosts, Love, Love Letters, M/M, Memories, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Canon, Romance, Soldiers, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-10 16:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allineedisaquill/pseuds/allineedisaquill
Summary: “Yes, the Captain had known love, and he had savoured all of it before it slipped through his fingers along with his life. They may not have had as many years as the Captain wished, but the ones they had would always be cherished and sacred. His to keep forever.”





	I Know We'll Meet Again, Some Sunny Day

**Author's Note:**

> Did you really think I wouldn't be writing for 'Ghosts'? Think again. We will probably get the Captain's backstory (and actual name) at some point, hopefully this series, but until then I wanted to give him my own backstory complete with the great love of his life. I've fallen a bit in love with Jack myself.

They say all’s fair in love and war, but the Captain would beg to differ.

Both unforgiving in their cruelty, that was the way of his world when he had walked it with breath still in his lungs, and the way it remained for long after it had gone.

Over the years, from the confines of the crumbling house he died in, he watched the people come and go. As the days and nights turned over and brought with them brighter dawns, it would always be too late for him.

The Captain loved men when he couldn’t, shouldn’t, not openly without dire consequences. That desire and yearning simmered away, his to bear alone for so many lonely years. He admired their strength, longed to feel it and savour it, but even though his heart once beat, it was told to never love the way it had been born to.

But there had indeed been someone once, after all. Someone his heart _raced_ for.

A crossing of paths by luck. Before the war. Before the end.

It had been a great, all-consuming love that eclipsed any pain he could ever feel.

Jack may have been his secret, but to love him at all was the Captain’s greatest privilege in his unfairly short life. He had been grateful for that, for _him_ , a light in the dark. It ranked far above anything else he’d achieved, outshone any medal. He didn’t know about the others, but he was quite sure the grief would never fully melt away. There were nights he could still picture in the darkness of his room, nights of crackling records and strong arms around his ribs and lips pressed to his shoulder. If he tried hard enough, he could still taste tobacco and whiskey kisses. If he tried harder still, there would be a familiar cologne that lingered on the air once more, wrapped him up safely until he almost felt warm again. _Alive._

Yes, the Captain had known love, and he had savoured all of it before it slipped through his fingers along with his life. They may not have had as many years as the Captain wished, but the ones they had would always be cherished and sacred. His to keep forever.

 

“I rather like you like this, in the mornings,” Jack whispered, a smile on his face. He lay beside the Captain on his front, chin rested on his partner’s chest. He kissed it once, watched as the Captain rolled his eyes but couldn’t resist a small smile of his own as his cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink.

“I like you more,” the Captain said as he trailed lazy fingers up and down the warm skin of his lover’s naked back, above where their bed-covers ended at his waist.

Deep brown eyes filled with warmth, honeyed by the morning sun and framed with dark lashes. Jack’s mousy brown hair fell in a slight wave over them until the Captain gently pushed the strands away, his touch gentle. He could count every freckle, longed to map them with his lips.

Jack leaned into the touch, held the hand there until the Captain gave in and he let his palm cup a clean-shaven cheek. “Careful, my dear,” Jack murmured slowly, “you’ll have me smitten.”

The Captain smiled until the corners of his eyes crinkled, moustache lifting as his lips did. “As though that isn’t already true,” he replied. The pad of his thumb grazed his face.

“You might be right,” Jack conceded, and a moment later pushed himself up by his elbows.

He was met halfway, greeted with a kiss that tickled his upper lip in the way Jack loved. It was unhurried, languid, like they had all the time in the world. With each push and pull, small give and take, both were quite sure there was nowhere else they would rather be.

“Tell me you will be with me forever.” The Captain kissed Jack’s lips again.

Jack tilted their foreheads together. “I will be,” he promised.

 

Heartbreak, the Captain decided, felt nothing like it was described in the books.

It was so much more devastating than that. He could collapse under its weight, have it bring him to his knees in seconds flat. He was utterly powerless to stop it. To stop it all.

“It’s not goodbye, my love,” Jack told him, his partner’s face cradled carefully in his hands.

Except it felt so very much like goodbye.

The Captain’s effort to be brave was short-lived, stiff upper lip reduced to a tremble when Jack placed a kiss there with all the tenderness in the world.

“I will write to you,” Jack promised, “and you’ll write back. It will be like I’m right there with you, and I will be. God, I will be.” He pressed their foreheads together, and the Captain took a deep breath as he tried in earnest to steady his emotions. His tears did not stop, but Jack caught them anyway. Jack always caught him. Always ready, arms open.

“I will be,” he echoed, returning the promise even as his voice wavered.

Jack lifted, only to press sure lips to a forehead until its wrinkles smoothed out.

“I will be,” Jack said once more.

 

_It’s miserable here._

The Captain hated the thought of him unhappy, cold, dirty, caught between gunfire. He traced Jack’s handwriting as he read on, about the trenches and the lads and how much he was missed. It was all he could do to hold it together, lest the ink bleed on the paper from tears. He would be stronger for the both of them. He had to be.

_Don’t fret. I know you so easily do._

He huffed. Even from so far away with an aching heart, Jack made him smile. It was as though he had read his mind.

The Captain found comfort in that.

_I look forward to hearing from you next. I am so proud._

The credentials he would drop in a heartbeat just to see his love again.

_Remember what I told you, may it keep you warm at night._

_Yours,_

_J_

The Captain knew he could never possibly forget.

He remembered long after the letters stopped.

 

When the Captain died, there was nothing, and then a light wrapped around his bones.

He smelled cologne, felt a calloused hand on his.

“I can’t stay, my love,” he heard, “you need to wake up, now.”

His heart almost restarted at that voice, oh so familiar and soft and _home_.

The Captain opened his eyes, and when he sat up from the bed, his body remained behind.

Ah. So that’s what had happened.

He didn’t care, though, not the way one perhaps should when one dies. Jack was there, holding his hand, and there was nothing else he could possibly care about in that moment.

“You promised,” the Captain said, so afraid to face death alone. His voice cracked.

Jack’s hand moved to his cheek, instead, and the Captain could have cried at the feeling. It had been too long for them, and now cruel fate was about to deal a second hand.

“Oh, but it will always be a promise. I’ll always be with you.” His smile was tender. “Here.” That’s when his hand moved to the Captain’s chest, touched to the green of his uniform.

The Captain’s heart broke, quite suddenly, in two. “Why can’t you stay? Why can’t I come with you, wherever it is you’re going? Please. _Please_.”

“This isn’t my place. It’s yours. But I know we’ll be together, one day,” he said. “You mustn't be sad. You mustn't dwell on it. We’ll have our time again, and I will be waiting.”

Lips. Soft, tender, a promise. Jack’s kiss said everything the Captain couldn’t.

When the pressure disappeared, he opened his eyes, and Jack was gone.

He stared out the window beyond, at the sun setting in the sky.

“I will be,” the Captain said finally.

“Will be what?” Came a gruff voice from right beside him.

The Captain let out a startled noise and turned on his heel, and then his jaw dropped open. The man who had spoken to him was barely a man at all, prehistoric with far more hair than anyone he had ever seen. He blinked, stunned, as a few more people filtered through the very walls of the room to look at him curiously. They seemed to span literal centuries.

“Dear lord,” he said quickly, under his breath.

With a swallow, he straightened his back and prepared to greet the afterlife.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to yell at me about the show, or about the angst I've bestowed upon you, over on my Tumblr: yonderland.tumblr.com. Thank you!


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